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Group Buy on Areca Thunderbolt 2 8050T2 RAIDs
We just got our first batch of Areca 8050T2 Thunderbolt 2 RAIDs in …. very impressive sustained Read & Write speeds at over 1300 MB/s on the AJA system test.
If you have a new Mac Pro cylinder and want to get the most out of Thunderbolt 2 RAID storage you should take a close look at the 8 bay ARECA Tbolt 2 8050T2 … this is a beast of RAID … perfect for EPIC or DRAGON footage if you have a Tbolt 2 Mac.
Ran the BMD and AJA speed tests against an Areca 8050 Tbolt 1 RAID … a Promise Pegasus P2R8 Tbolt 2 RAID … and the Areca 8050T2 …. see screen grabs below … Areca 8050T2 came in at over 1300 MB/s sustained Read & Write on the AJA system whack:
Given that Intel have capped Thunderbolt 2 at 1350 MB/s that is pretty damn impressive – i always try and use Areca RAID controllers in the RAIDs we sell and now I know why … their engineers have really found a way to optimize RAID I/O throughput.
If you’re interested in buying the fastest Thunderbolt 2 storage on the planet … here’s the deal for the Creative Cow 8050T2 Group Buy:
– Single empty 8050T2 sells for $1999 each (plus S&H)
– 10 x empty 8050T2 sell for $1899 each (plus S&H)
– 20 x empty 8050T2 sell for $1799 each (plus S&H)Let me know if you’re interested in joining in the group buy and as soon as I get 10 or 20 orders signed up I’ll let everyone know.
Will need payment in advance for all all orders before I confirm final discounted prices … plus I’m only going to ship to US continent .. will work out best S&H deal with UPS or FedEx once I know what the final number is.
Send me your email with address details and how many empty 8050T2 chassis you want to ne**@*******ge.com
Neil Smith
CEO
LumaForge LLC
high performance workflow
323-850-3550
http://www.lumaforge.com -
3 Replies
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Hi Neil –
that is very impressive, but I find it almost hard to believe. I too use Areca host adaptors, and have worked with the 8050T2. I have no idea of how you are getting this bandwidth. I did NOT do any testing at RAID0, but at RAID 5, and found the performance (using HGST Ultrastar 3TB drives) to be between 800 and 900 MB/sec, using both AJA System Test, and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.I did however, recently test the 16 bay (you did too, I believe) and was able to get 1300 MB/sec at RAID 0 with 16 drives – but it drops down to between 1100 and 1200 MB/sec with RAID 6, using the ix card.
The theoretical limit of Thunderbolt 2 is 1375 MB/sec, so it’s good, but not as good as the same gen or Areca or ATTO card in a x16 lane slot in a 2008 Mac Pro, running a conventional miniSAS RAID array (using the same drives), where you can get between 1400 – 1600 MB/sec.ALSO – even at RAID 0, you only see these speeds after do a large test (like the 16 gig test). What you observe in REAL LIFE, is that it takes time (like 5 full seconds) to get up to 1300 MB/sec (or 900 MB/sec in the case of the 8050T2). Which means that when you need the full bandwidth at the first second of playback, you ain’t gonna get it. It takes time to get up to these speeds, and time is an issue if you have complex program media, or lots of streams.
I remember when the Promise R6 first came out and they showed 800 MB/sec. I have installed countless Promise R4 and R6 products, always in RAID 5, and you are lucky to get half that bandwidth, as was shown in the ad’s.
The point of my rant here, is that while these are all new and exciting products (the ARC8050T2, the Promise R8, and the up coming Netstor, which is pretty amazing), NONE of these products will perform as well as THE OLD STUFF running in a x16 lane slot in a 2008 or 2009 Mac Pro.
This will be an exciting NAB. They should rename the south lower hall to Thunderbolt 2 hall, as every manufacturer that we see on Creative Cow will be showing Thunderbolt 2 products.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Hi Bob,
I too was a little surprised at how fast the 8050T2 ran under AJA speed test but let me tell you exactly what I did this morning .. this is precisely what happened – no fudging or tweaking used at any time.
1) I unpacked the 8050T2 out of the box that arrived yesterday from Taiwan.
2) took out the 8 x drive sleds.
3) went across the room and took out the 8 x 3TB sleds that I already had in an Areca Thunderbolt 1 8050 – these are 3 TB Seagate desktop drives I use for demo purposes.
4) inserted the 8 x 3TB sleds into the 8050TB2 .. the 24TB volume already had 13 TBs of footage on it so these were not empty spindles.
5) plugged in the power supply cable and a copper Thunderbolt cable into the 8050T2.
6) the existing RAID 0 volume came up straight away on the nMP.
7) ran the BMD and AJA disk whack test.
Didn’t tweak anything … didn’t adjust anything … 1300 MB/s on the AJA system using 4K files and 16GB test – first time … actually ran it a second time just to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong.
What I do find interesting is the difference in measured I/O speeds between the Blackmagic speed test and the AJA disk whack … I typically use both and they always give different results … any idea what they’re actually measuring and why the difference?
I don’t treat either test as an absolute value more as a relative comparison but would like to know what the underlying difference is.
And yes, NAB this year is going to be all about Thunderbolt 2 and 4K … we’ll be in the South Hall near you guys so maybe we should get together and organize a Creative Cow Tblot2 RAVE or something 🙂
Cheers,
NeilNeil Smith
CEO
LumaForge LLC
high performance workflow
323-850-3550
http://www.lumaforge.com -
That sounds exciting Neil !
I am sure that both of us will keep reporting results, as we keep testing and get closer to NAB. NAB should be great this year.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com
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